The 'Spanish Flu' of 1918-19 remains the most devastating pandemic of modern times, possibly killing up to 100 million people world wide. The loss of life massively exceeded the numbers killed during the First World War. Yet curiously its political, military and social impact was largely unrecognised at the time and is barely considered today. In this talk, Hew Strachan discusses the challenges the flu epidemic presents for the modern historian and provides some context for our own predicament today.

The British Academy's Shape the Future programme examines the societal, economic and cultural implications of the pandemic

Speaker: Professor Sir Hew Strachan FBA, Professor of International Relations, University of St Andrews; Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; Life Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Image: A typist wearing a flu face mask © PhotoQuest / Archive Photos / Getty Images

Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-war-revolution-and-pandemic-1918-19/